As cost cutting looms, marketing budget is one of the first business expenses that faces reduction. But is that the right move?
Let me be clear. The answer is no. Nope. Absolutely not.
Not telling people about your business is a sure-fire way to cut income, not costs. In these financially challenging times what you need to do is be smarter with how you market.
Marketing Budget Cuts
This was brought into focus for me recently while watching an instalment of Mi-TV, hosted by Emma Mills of MiPA. I’ve known Emma for many years and always look forward to the latest upload to her YouTube channel. She provides insight and opinion which really get you thinking.
In an episode called Four not quick wins to help see you through the recession, Emma talked about riding out the financial crisis. She, like me, thinks that economic downturns can be moments of opportunity for businesses which get it right.
Her thoughts here echo mine – watch the full video above.
I agree that many are so afraid of the consequences of economic turmoil that they actively choose to be part of the downturn, making it a self-fulfilling prophecy for their firm. They become overwhelmed by fear and either fail to respond, or respond in the most negatives ways – like slashing the marketing budget.
Of course, as Emma says, we all need to be cost conscious in business, perhaps especially now, but we don’t need to be paralysed by fear.
Use Marketing Budget Wisely
I fully endorse Emma’s view that now is the time to double down on your marketing activity. Look at what has worked for you in the past, and where your customers have come from, and do more of it. Not less.
This doesn’t necessarily mean you have to spend more. You just need to deploy whatever marketing budget you can afford more wisely.
There are plenty of ways of doing this. Emma gives a couple of examples for small business, such as emailing customers directly or sharing self-filmed videos with helpful tips to combat the cost-of-living crisis.
Neil Patel offers some good ideas for cost-effective digital marketing which can challenge – and beta – much larger firms. You can listen to his ideas about effective SEO strategy on his YouTube channel, in the video How to Outrank a Large Corporate When You Don’t Have the Budget or Manpower.
Watch the full video above.
How and Where to Market
Many people’s circumstances are different now, and that includes many of your customers. Your marketing needs to recognise and respond to those changing needs.
Take time to consider what people are really facing and the problems they are encountering. Then think about how what you do can be a solution.
You can then tailor your marketing to demonstrate how your business can actually help them, potentially making life easier.
For example, as interest rates rise people are struggling to secure mortgages and battling to keep up with the soaring monthly repayments of variable rates. If you are a mortgage broker, you are ideally placed to help these people find the lending they need or move to a more affordable deal.
What you do can actually help people, as well as making you money. But if you don’t tell people, how will they know?
Marketing in Practice
If you are consumed by ‘doom and gloom’ amid the financial crisis, you may question the point of this. When you are worrying about meeting overheads and wages, the last thing you need is someone telling you to spend money on adverts, social media, email campaigns, and PR.
To answer that, let’s look at the Covid-19 pandemic. While many businesses crumbled, some survived, some grew, and some new enterprises flourished.
Companies began to recognise the changing needs of society and instead of seeing crisis, they saw opportunity. They saw a chance to build their brand by genuinely addressing a need, such as Zoom becoming number one in online meetings or restaurants that launched food delivery services. There are many examples.
They saw a demand, catered to it, and then made sure people know about it through marketing. Their marketing budget was not a victim of the economic situation. It was preserved as a way to survive the downturn and, perhaps, even thrive.
And, as you’ll probably remember, this was true for major corporations with mega-budgets, who swallowed up TV airtime, as well as tiny, independent firms who relied on direct emailing, social media ads, even leafleting.
They maintained their marketing spend at the level appropriate for their size of business, and then deployed it wisely.
Conclusion
If your shoulders drop when you read about the crisis we face and your thoughts immediately turn to cost cutting, please don’t put your marketing budget on the chopping block first.
Yes, be more conscious than ever about how every penny is spent, look for more affordable methods, and demand results. But don’t just stop talking about yourself.
Abandoning all marketing is, in effect, talking yourself into failure.
